Imagine you are at the edge of the sea on a day when it is difficult to say where the land ends and the sea begins and where the sea ends and the sky begins. Sea kayaking lets you explore these and your own boundaries and broadens your horizons. Sea kayaking is the new mountaineering.
...attracted the attention of only a few mostly disinterested locals.
It did not take long to reach the New Bridge which...
...was built in 1935.
We were speeding along and the weed on the river bed was stretched out flat.
Soon the mountains of Loch Shiel were a distant memory behind us. The Shiel is a popular salmon fishing river but we went down it before the season opened so we saw no fishermen. There are many wooden platforms that extend from the banks to allow more fishermen per foot of river. I thought that the fishermen must be blessed with incredible balancing skills to stand unaided on the narrow planks of wood until I realized that these were the handrails! The broader standing boards were deep under water. The river was high! No wonder we had noticed the level of the loch had dropped so much the night before, all that missing water was coming down here.
I had scouted out the river two years ago in similar high conditions and knew that the river took a sharp left under the single span of the Old Bridge which was built in 1804. There was the distinct sound of breaking water round the bend and the water proved quite confused with several eddy lines. I would not want to run this small rapid in high levels without some bracing and edging skills. However,0...
...order was soon restored and we spent...
...some very pleasant time meandering...
...round the bends at increasing speed. It was low tide and I knew and Ian and Mike expected what the meaty rapid would be like where the Shiel fell into Loch Moidart. When I had scouted the rapid previously I knew that you could get out at the final pool, the Sea Pool JUST above the rapid and have a short portage of about 100m into the sea. However, the river was running swiftly, our speed had increased to 10km/hr and we had some new kayak trolleys to test. So we took an early exit at...
...after a quick Jura to stiffen the sinews we set off on...
...a one kilometre portage along the estate track and past the...
...rapid. It was indeed rather meaty with a nasty stopper rolling in from an eddy on the left after the first drop.
We walked down every inch of the rapid to...
...the lower drop. I suggested to Ian and Mike that I did not want to be a spoilsport and produced my throw line then kindly offered to provide safety cover while they ran the rapid. They took one look at each other...
...then the pair of them ran off! Maybe we were "feeling small" as we slunk back to our trolleys.
We now entered the shallows near the mouth of Loch Shiel. The sandy bottom was visible most of the way across the loch except for a narrow channel in the middle. There was complete silence except when some...
...loud Canada geese honked by.
Looking back up the loch, the mountains now seemed a very long way away.
For the first time since leaving Glenfinnan we caught sight of a group of houses,...
...the village of Arachacle with its jetty lies at the west end of the loch. Before the modern roads were built this was a very remote place. In 1893 David MacBrayne ran the first weekly launch service on the loch to connect Arachacle and Glenfinnan. This was replaced by a larger steamer, Lady of the Lake, in 1898 by Lord Howard of Glossop, who owned Dalelia estate. It linked up with the mail coach service from Fort William to Arisaig.
The current boat service is operated by Loch Shiel Cruises from end of March until beginning of October. The MV Sileas spends the winter at Moss, on the opposite side of the loch from Acharacle.
We had an enjoyable chat with Jim Michie who has run Loch Shiel Cruises since 1998. He was getting the MV Sileas ready for her annual inspection prior to her summer season. She was built in 1940 at Rosneath as a harbour launch for the Royal Navy. She is 52 feet long and built very strongly of double diagonal teak on oak frames. and Jim told us a little about her history. In the summer her trips from Glenfinnan would be an excellent way to see the loch if you do not have a boat of your own.
Leaving Jim in the warm spring sunshine we realised that we had passed imperceptibly from the loch to the river, from the mountains to the lowlands and from winter to spring. The current in the River Shiel was now carrying us towards the sea.
We relaunched our kayaks and left the peaceful Green Isle of St Finan with its graves surrounded by...
...the loch, forests and mountains.
We were now in the shallow basin at the SW end of Loch Shiel. The loch side was now backed by green fields of Dalelia estate and...
...cattle made their way to the shore to drink.
Dalelia estate lies on the NW shore and we passed some attractive mixed woodland in...
...which we spotted a tall stone cross, almost hidden by the trees. It is a war memorial erected by Dalelia's then owner, Lord Howard of Glossop, to his son. Lt. Philip Howard. Philip was only 23 years old when he died in action in France in 1918, near the end of WW1. His family's wealth could not protect him from the ultimate sacrifice and waste of war.
Of course other young men from this part of the highlands also died in WW1 but their families could not afford to erect a monument. However, their 13 names are listed on the war memorial at Acharacle village at the lower end of Loch Shiel. Philip Howard's name is not on it as he was from Glossop in Derbyshire. His father had wanted to build a memorial to his son and have it sited in Norfolk Square in Glossop but it was never built. Instead a memorial to all of Glossop's dead (including Philip) was erected in Norfolk Square and Lord Howard sited the personal memorial here on the shore of Loch Shiel.
The breeze now meant we were making good progress while paddle sailing and soon we...
...passed Dalelia house at the centre of the estate. It was built by Alexander MacDonald as a tacks-man's house about 1795 and extended by Lord Howard in 1907 as a holiday home. In 1745 at the start of his ill fated rebellion, Bonnie Prince Charlie made his way to Dalelia over the coffin road (to St Finan's Isle) through the pass in the hills from the head of Loch Moidart. From Dalelia he was taken by boat to spend the night with Alexander MacDonald at Glenaladale before going on to Glenfinnan at the head of Loch Shiel to raise his standard the following day. This was the start of his ill fated rebellion to regain the British crown for his father.
From Dalelia Glenfinnan is 22 kilometres away (beyond the distant mountains to the left of Mike's head). This is the view that Prince Charlie would have seen at the start of his futile rebellion. It is also a view he would have seen nearly a year later as he escaped this way after the final defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Perhaps it is also a view that Philip Howard had also enjoyed before he went to war and his untimely death in France. Perhaps this why his grieving father built his memorial here rather than in Glossop. We were fortunate that we were leaving Dalelia on a peaceful voyage and were now reaching the end of our journey down Loch Shiel.
As we entered the dog leg in Loch Shiel we found that the way ahead was almost completely blocked by...
...the Green or St Finan's Isle, which is topped by the ancient stones of St Finan's chapel and the graves of the those who have inhabited these lands since mediaeval times. This narrowing of the loch is where the original glacier that cut Loch Shiel would have met the sea and melted, depositing its moraine.
We landed at the jetty where generations of mourners have landed to carry the coffins of their deceased up...
...the hill to the...
...graveyard at the top. Some of the older grave stones are simple boulders half buried in the grass while...
...other stones from the 18th century bear upright crosses, some of which are simply carved. Later stones are...
...not only taller but...
...some are elaborately carved. This one was erected by...
...the grateful parishioners of Reverend Charles MacDonald who died in 1894. He was also a local historian and author.
At the summit of the isle is St Finan's chapel. It was built in about 1500 by the chief of the Clanranald to replaced an earlier wooden structure. It was abandoned in the late 1600's so was already a ruin by the time Bonnie Prince Charlie came this way in 1745 on his way to Glenfinnan at the head of the loch. Almost certainly the Prince would have stopped here and made his way up to the chapel. St Finan (the leper) was born in Ireland and is thought to have lived between about 520 and 600. Several places in Scotland and Ireland are named after him. He is not to be confused with the later St Finan (of Lindisfarne) who died in 661 after becoming Bishop of Lindisfarne.
Today the ruins are very peaceful and seldom visited. They are surrounded by the loch, forests and mountains of the lands of Moidart, Ardgour and Sunart from where the deceased were brought to be buried. At the east end of the chapel a simple slab alter survives. In a recess above it...
...is a carved stone cross. On the alter itself is a remarkable object. It is a Celtic seamless cast bronze bell. Amazingly it has been here for over a thousand years. Nowadays it is chained up but it is remarkable that it has survived the millennia without being plundered. Of course there is a dreadful curse attached to the bell and any one who stole it would regret doing so for every second of their few remaining days... During an internment the bell is taken down to the jetty and rung at the head of the cortège as they slowly make their way up to the waiting grave.
The bell has a remarkably clear and pure tone and as I rang it...
...deer on the far hillside broke off from their grazing, raised their heads and listened in the same way that countless generations of their ancestors must have done. We had lost all sense of time as we had explored the small isle, over an hour had passed since we landed. We were glad we were not headland to headland paddlers. Each of us felt a strong connection with the landscape and the generations of people who had lived and died here. We reflected on our own mortality and felt a deep joy in being able to experience such a place. Paradoxically we had never felt so alive than here in this place of the dead.
By coincidence St Finan's Saint's Day is the 18th of March, the very day we were there. Perhaps that may have added to the ambience we enjoyed though we did not know it was that day at the time.
We were still in no hurry as we made our way back down to the jetty where...
...we enjoyed a peaceful coffee break with the silvery song of a robin and the echoes of an ancient bell ringing in our ears.
